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Thang-ga, also known as Tangga, is a Tibetan transliteration of religious scrolls framed in colored satin and hung for worship. Thangka is a unique form of painting art in Tibetan culture, the subject matter involves many fields such as Tibetan history, politics, culture and social life, and most of the thangkas passed down from generation to generation are Works of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon Religion.
Thangka is a unique form of painting in Tibetan culture. With distinct national characteristics, strong religious colors and unique artistic styles, the world of the sacred Buddha is depicted with bright colors; pigments are traditionally all made of precious mineral gems such as gold, silver, pearls, agate, coral, turquoise, malachite, cinnabar, and plants such as saffron, rhubarb, and blue indigo as pigments to show their sacredness. These natural raw materials ensure that the thangkas painted are bright and dazzling in color, and although they have been hundreds of years old, they are still bright and bright. Therefore, it is known as a treasure of Chinese national painting art, and is known as the "encyclopedia" of the Tibetan people, which is also a precious intangible cultural heritage in the folk art of the Chinese nation.
The traditional thangka drawing requirements are harsh and the procedures are extremely complicated, and must be carried out in accordance with the rituals in the scriptures and the requirements of the guru, including a set of technical procedures such as pre-painting ceremony, canvas making, composition and drafting, coloring and dyeing, line shaping, gold and silver painting, eye opening, seaming and light opening. It takes a long time to make a thangka, half a year to complete, and more than ten years to complete.
Before drawing a thangka, you must first make various preparations. In terms of color, the various colors needed on the thangka you want to draw should be matched in advance, not only the main color, but also a variety of mixed colors. If you can freely match various mixed colors and grasp their laws and characteristics, you can vividly express the differences in different customs and seasons.
The five main colors of local origin in Tibetan areas are white, yellow, red, blue, green and other primary colors that are matched and produced by various mixed colors called secondary colors. The following is a brief introduction to the processing methods of the five main colors:
1
Stone yellow and male yellow
It is mainly produced in the Kham area and belongs to the ore class. The processing method is first dry ground into powder in a smooth stone tank, and then wet ground in the stone mortar for three to four days. Natural yellow dan from the Indus River is a very rare ore color. The processing method of huangdan parasitic on the surface of aluminum is to soak in hot water and filter it with gauze. If there is a salty taste, its color will turn black in the future, so it needs to be repeatedly washed with water, which is called Indian yellow dan.
Ore pigments produced in the Kham area are yellow or male yellow
2
Dark blue, stone green
Produced in Nimu County and Jia Velvet area, these two colors originate from an ore, after processing before separating into two colors, first smashed ore is ground into powder with stone, and then put into a clay pot with a few drops of vegetable oil and then add the right amount of water to boil, floating on the top is pine stone green, sinking at the bottom is dark blue, should be stored separately. In addition, after five to six days of wet grinding in the stone mortar, the topmost layer naturally precipitated in the water is light green, the second layer is three green, the third layer is two green, and the lowest layer is head blue.
It is produced in The Tibetan Blue of Nimu County and the Jiarong Region
3
green
According to the same method, the top layer is divided into three greens, the second layer is two greens, and the bottom layer is head green. This type of ore never changes color.
It is produced in Nimu County and Jiarong district, and can also be replaced by turquoise
4
Loza Ngoc Ngang people free of Razon Zhu period
The big red color produced in the Loza region is called "free", and its color is comparable to that of Indian red. It has long been impossible to mine due to the closure of the mine. Sometimes a little can be picked up in the mud washed down by the rain. The Houzang region also produces a large red with a better hue called "Tibetan Cai". The above two are called natural red, and the processing method is to first grind the ore into powder, and then wet grind it in the stone mortar for about five days. There is a big red extracted from silver called cinnabar, which is produced in the interior and India, and this red is a common color due to its good quality.
5
"Renbu White Powder"
Produced in the Houzang Renbu area, the processing method is to first grind the white stone into a fine powder, and then wet grind it in the stone mortar for about seven days. "Yangjing white powder" is produced in the Yangbajing area, it is a white soil grain, its processing method is to put it into a large tank with water and mix it with gauze filter, precipitate overnight after the water on the top is poured out, the bottom of the white soil can be dried, its main use is to process thangka canvas and paint murals when the background color (color base).
6
Other colors
Flower green is produced in the Chayu area, is a kind of grass processing resulting from the processing of "Ouran", the processing method is to collect this grass in the shade and dry it, and soak it in boiling water when needed.
There is also a medium blue produced in India, which may be ore tired, and its processing method is to dry and preserve it after two or three days of wet grinding in the tin can.
The carmine color is produced in a kind of yellow bark in the Chayu area, and the processing method is to smash the bark and wrap it in gauze together with Xu Kang grass, add water to the jar to boil it, boil the carmine color out, and then slowly pour the rouge water into the porcelain bowl bit by bit, let the water evaporate on a slight fire, and finally pinch it into pills when it becomes sticky.
Xu Kang grass is produced in a yellow-leaved plant called "Bangze Maku" in the Baju region of Bhutan, which is collected and stored in a cool place. In addition, the yellow lotus that grows in the Yin Mountains can also replace Xu Kang grass, soaking it in boiling water and adding a little alkali to soak out the color. The raw material for making ink is to collect the oil lamp slag or peel off the skin of the live green oil pine, seal five or six bottomless clay pots on the stove, and then the furnace begins to burn the oil pine skin, in addition to the lowest clay pot, the smoke and dust in the above several clay pots are scraped in the iron pot and added glue, placed on the fire and heated after the force is finely ground, when the chirping sound is reached, it is also repeatedly cooled.
Tibetan thangka is an ancient art, which is different from ordinary painting styles, and its paint production, painting methods, purposes and ways of thinking are very different, accompanied by characteristic painting groups and produced unique painting types. Through the investigation and comparison of thangka painting pigments and workmanship, this paper expounds the characteristics of thangka as a cultural phenomenon.
The ore is broken and wet ground in the mortar
Thangkas are widely collected because of the exquisite and unique craftsmanship of their craftsmanship, and many people hang their portraits as beautified ornaments in their homes because of their solemnity. Some people say that thangka is close to the oil painting of the Western medieval period, or a kind of hand embroidery similar to Jiangnan, and some people say that it is a religious magic instrument, and the variety of thangka can make people think of many, in fact, these are a manifestation of the diversity of thangka art. Like other art forms, thangka painting has a unique side in expressing images of a certain meaning.
Depending on the color, the grinding method and the ingredients added are also different
This particularity lies in the fact that it has a clear painting procedure, for example: the preparation, coloring and painting steps of pigments, and even the place where the thangka is painted and the painter have specific regulations, so when we analyze and study the coloring properties of thangka, we must clearly know that thangka coloring is not simply "coloring with class".
After grinding, filter the pigment with gauze and wait for drying
Thangka is generally not large, but it is meticulously drawn, has both forms and colors, and pays attention to workmanship. Moreover, the configuration of painting color pigments has a secret inheritance, and its recipes are handed down from family paintings and preserved in Tibetan scriptures. From the naming of thangka paintings such as Golden Tang, Black Tang, and Cinnabar Tang, you can also feel the specialness and magic of Thangka in the use of color.
The pigment after grinding
The pigments of Thangka paintings are very distinctive in this regard, all painted with natural pigments. The pigments are produced in natural mineral deposits in snowy areas and are very lightfast, weather resistant and stable. The well-known "dark blue", which is named after Tibet, has the stable characteristics of the color that has lasted for a long time compared with the same pigments produced in other places, and can better reflect the solemn, noble and solemn painting atmosphere after matching with golden yellow, etc., and has become one of the unique special colors of Thangka. Many of these minerals and plants used to produce pigments were used by Tibetan medicine, showing the ingenuity of the ancient Tibetan people to comprehensively develop and utilize natural resources.
Plant pigment Kaju pills
There are extremely rich pigment deposits in Tibetan areas, which provide superior color conditions for Thangka painting, which is also an indispensable factor for the development of Thangka painting.
Plant pigment dark red pills
When Tibetans use Tibetan ore and plant pigments to paint murals and thangkas, they adopt corresponding techniques according to the nature of various pigments. In tibetan scriptures, see Menladen zhu and Duma Geshe Tenzin Phuntsok, "The Art of Painted Sculptures in Tibetan Buddhism", Chinese Tibetology, No. 6, 1997, pp. 74-75. There has been such a record: For example: navy blue is a coarser particle color, therefore, when painting, first in the pigment mixed with a thicker glue for a flat coating, and then adjust the lighter glue to apply again, drying and then flattening on the top of the water, and then, with the fingers gently rubbed, and then with the nine-eyed stone (also available for agate) polishing, after such technical treatment, will remove the roughness of the dark blue, and produce a flat, oily, thick effect. Green is treated in exactly the same way as Navy. Cyan is usually specially used to express the sky, so the Tibetan name is also called "sky light cyan", its specific use method is: first of all, the part of the thangka that expresses the sky is painted twice with three cyan flats, and then the two cyan wet dyes are used twice to carry out spot dyeing, and the pen should be light when the dot dyeing is light and there is no trace between the dots and points, and the dot surface of each stroke can be larger when the dot dyeing is first, and then the dot surface should be smaller and smaller, and the horizontal point should be flatly spotted. Stone green is mainly used to depict the ground, leaves, ribbons, body color, etc. Li Huang, Xiong Huang, Huang Dan, Cinnabar, White Powder and all other secondary color pigments can be used for painting by adding an appropriate amount of glue when using.
Plant pigment flower green pills
Plant pigments extracted from plants are also commonly used pigments in Tibetan painting. Most of the Tibetan plant pigments have pure color, light and heat resistance, and have excellent color life.
Botanical pigment ink pills
The processing technology of plant color is relatively simple, mainly through the process of collection, selection, cleaning, soaking, boiling (or adding alkali), evaporation, pellet making and so on. Among them, boiling and evaporation are the key processes, and the amount of water and boiling time should be paid attention to when boiling. This is quite similar to the production of early oil painting palettes, but the blending materials used are very different. Western painting is very similar to thangka in early plant preparations, but today most of them use chemical preparations, such as: walnut oil, oxidants and hydrogenated nails boiled for a long time, adding some plant ingredients, using fire evaporation cooling, etc., which have certain harm to the environment and the human body. Thangka paintings use plant juice to harmonize colors. Boiled with plants such as yellow lotus, a little soil alkali needs to be added; in order to reduce the impurities in the pigment pellets, there is a filtration and purification process before evaporation, and the evaporation process needs to keep the evaporation environment clean, which has been maintained to this day.
In the traditional Tibetan painting seasoning process, the evaporative extraction method of plant color is to place many small porcelain bowls on the charcoal fire, and then drip the boiled liquid into the bowl little by little to evaporate. In the evaporation process, impurities such as charcoal ash are easy to fall into the plant color, and there is usually no filtration purification process in the traditional process, so the impurity content in the plant color pills is often more, so when using the plant color, it is necessary to soak and precipitate first, and it is not allowed to mix and use it when painting, so as not to affect the purity of the color. Plant pigments such as rouge, flower green Xu Kang grass, grass green, yellow lotus, small tillers, etc., are usually used to draw water, stone, clouds, flowers, treasures, treasure houses, flesh color, etc. The method of use is to mix the light glue and then apply it flat, and then use the coordinating color to divide the light and dark. For example: the basic color is pink, light rouge, cinnabar, etc., with rouge color to dye; the basic color is dark blue, two blue, three blue, etc., by the flower blue dyeing; the basic color is brown, gray, with ink color dyeing; white background flower with pure rouge moisture dyeing, white background cloud with light ink dyeing, and so on.
Prepare the ground gold leaf
The outer part of the beam begins to the inside, and the root is dark and dark on the outside, and the gradual fading dyeing method is widely used. Spot dyeing brush strokes should be uniform, spot dyeing spots should be the same, flat dyeing should not leave pen marks, and coarse dyeing should not see strokes. Red Ze performs gorgeously, Aozawa shows luster, Huang Ze performs majestic, and Kurosawa shows might.
Gold leaf after grinding
Thangka's painting rules and painting procedures are extremely meticulous, and there are long historical and cultural traditions and rules of application, and this is also a painting principle that all Thangka painters must follow. On the one hand, these principles and rules are conducive to the circulation of Thangka painting, on the other hand, they will also have certain limitations on the innovation of Thangka painting.
Thangka painted with mineral pigments
The process of making thangka is very similar to that of Western oil paintings, such as wooden frames, canvas paintings, homemade brush tools, the use of blended oils, and repeated painting methods. At the same time, the drawing method is divided into transparent and repetitive methods. The pen used to draw thangkas is even more special, generally made by the thangka painters themselves, and some of them are handed down from generation to generation. The material is selected from the fur of the animal, and the pen selected according to the subject matter of the painting is also different, and there are many types. Choose the appropriate size of the canvas, and then unfold the canvas (recently mostly muslin and poplin, etc.), fixed to a picture frame made of four branches about the same thickness as ordinary pencils (previously mostly sewn with cotton thread), and then propped with a rope under the easel named "Tang Zhuo", according to the "zigzag" shape of the four sides of the fine wood frame, tied together with the four sides of the large easel, roughly similar to the production form of the Western oil painting frame, are the basic processing of painting on the canvas, All of the above production processes were done by the Thangka painter himself.
Thangka part of mineral pigment painting
Before painting, it is necessary to carry out a fine treatment of the canvas, first soaking the canvas in lime water to soften the cloth, and then attaching the canvas to the smooth wooden board with smooth stones and grinding it repeatedly (the same as the reason why the round silk is painted into lime water and then flattened by the mallet) and finally coated with glue alum water to make the canvas thin. This is the same process as it paints on canvas. Brush a layer of grease on the canvas to fill the pores of the canvas, generally coated with a layer of grease blended with white ash or other stone powder paint, and then use an animal glue and a paste mixed with talcum powder to evenly apply to the canvas, after the canvas is dry, put the canvas on a flat place such as a table, rub the canvas with shells, cobblestone and other smooth things, until the canvas pattern is invisible.
Thangka part of gold painting
Drawing thangkas with a brush dipped in color from a bowl filled with paint is called a "dipping pen". According to the characteristics of different colors, dip pens also have their own special attention. For example: white, stone yellow and male yellow, such as from the top of the snow mountain, big red, orange, vice pink, gold powder, silver powder and metallic color, class, must be dipped from the bowl wall; turquoise class needs to be fished from the seabed. It can be seen that the technique of dipping pen is directly related to the color effect of the picture. Thangka painting has a unique color system. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas depicted in thangka have their own unique color symbols, so painters must follow these fixed procedures and principles, and on this basis, develop creativity around these specific themes.
The pigments used to draw thangkas are all taken from natural substances, with natural minerals and plants produced in the snowy area as the main raw materials for production, pure color, excellent quality, excellent light resistance, strong weather resistance, and the facts have proved that they have not faded significantly for thousands of years, so they are famous all over the world. Compared with similar pigments produced in other places, "Navy Blue", which is named after being produced in Tibet, has the characteristics of long-lasting color, bright hue and vulgarity, and can better reflect the solemn, noble and elegant atmosphere after matching with golden yellow, and has become one of the unique special colors. Gold, silver, coral, agate, pearls, precious stones, saffron, madder, rhubarb and other thangka pigments, the precious materials used are rare in the history of world painting. With this precious pigment portrait, the color is bright, the color is bright and dignified, the pattern is layered and spectacular, and it has the advantages of long retention, not easy to fade, and not easy to deteriorate. For example, the contemporary patriarch Mr. Raj designed a total length of 618 meters, a width of 2.5 meters, the world's longest scroll painting "Chinese Tibetan Culture and Art Painting Grand View", of which the title "Chinese Tibetan Culture and Art Painting Grand View" is written in gold powder. Many of the details of the paintings are outlined with gold threads. Make the picture sparkle and grandeur. Because the material is special. The quality of the long scrolls is like the frescoes of the Potala Palace, which never fades. The whole painting is brilliant and dazzling.
In terms of color, almost all thangkas must be trimmed with red, yellow and blue trims. Early thangkas were relatively simple, mostly sewn from various handmade fabrics. Red and yellow trims are mostly painted in color, and this method is still used in the folk today. After the Tibetan Middle Ages, it was sewn and combined with three-color pattern brocade, and there were certain rules in scale. And cover the picture with a yellow silk curtain and two red "flying swallows". During the offering, the silk curtain is folded upwards into a flower shape to become a thangka ornament, and the silk curtain is lowered when stored. Can cover and protect the picture. This form of expression of thangka not only has its decorative attributes and protective functions, but also has its cultural meaning: the three colors of red, yellow and blue represent heaven, earth and fire respectively, and are the elements that constitute the world; The first word represents the three realms of heaven, earth and earth. And some thangkas also sew another piece of precious brocade below, calling it a "special place" or "heavenly ladder" as a special setting for sentient beings to transcend the sea of suffering and enter the Buddha's world.
In the shape of Buddha statues, in addition to faces and gestures, there are also artistic languages such as shapes, colors, props, and ornaments to display and symbolize their religious significance. Thus enhancing the mystical, cultural and artistic appeal of thangka art. For example, the common "auspicious five offerings to the goddess", the upper body naked are red, yellow, white, blue, blue five colors, holding flowers, cymbals, incense sticks, food, silk "five offerings" to symbolize color, sound, incense, taste, touch the five wonderful desires. The body deformation is exaggerated, graceful and colorful. Paired with flying ribbons, it forms a dance-like decorative rhythm. Coupled with the purple curly backlight, the ring lotus is surrounded by a lot of flowers, which looks extremely elegant and wonderful.
Tibetan Thangka artists have explored a unique set of scientific methods for ingredients, paintings and painting gold in their long-term artistic practice. They used local cinnabar, copper ore, pyrite and wood to develop more than 20 kinds of mineral painting pigments, which provided convenient conditions for the development of thangka art.
The blending of color is very important, in general, a color should be mixed with four pigments, such as adding an appropriate amount of black to a brown color in the fiery red, and then adding the right amount of white to become red, and adding the right amount of chrysanthemum to the big red to become a light red. What is significantly different from the concept of red, yellow and blue as the three basic colors of the Western painting school is that in the traditional Tibetan painting theory, the basic colors are usually divided into white, yellow, red and blue, and the colors produced by the matching of these four basic colors are called secondary colors. Gongzhu Yunden Gyatso divides the basic colors into five types, and he said in the "General Collection of Knowledge": white, yellow, red, blue, and green are the basic colors; Yellow dan (orange yellow), flesh color, light carmine, black, smoke color, earth yellow, dark dark color, bone color, turquoise color are secondary colors; The above secondary colors can be divided into thirty-two recognized colors. The variety of color schemes is endless.
A good thangka is painted in more than 30 colors, some from 40 to 50 colors. A painting is synthesized from a rich pigment, with red, yellow, green, blue, white, black, purple, and cyan being the most common basic colors. Color matching is a science, its changes are endless, colorful. Drawing thangkas with a brush dipped in color from a bowl filled with paint is called a "dipping pen". According to the characteristics of different colors, dip pens also have their own special attention. Such as: white, stone yellow and male yellow, such as taken from the top of the snow mountain; Big red, orange red, secondary pink, gold powder, silver powder and metallic color, must be dipped from the bowl wall; The turquoise type needs to be fished from the seabed. It can be seen that the technique of dipping pen is directly related to the color effect of the picture.
When painting specifically, experienced painters follow the painting, preferring to adjust it slightly thinner, and each color is very thin. It can be colored three times to achieve delicacy, the canvas absorbs well, looks like a natural, fine and beautiful. Thangka coloring pays attention to the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue, and the contrast between cold and warm colors is strong.
Traditional Tibetan painting techniques emphasize the use of lines to depict shapes and colors to express their appearance. As far as the relationship between line drawing and color is concerned, Tibetan painters have this analogy: although the form is good and the color is poor, just like the beautiful woman wearing ragged, it is difficult to see the graceful and delicate body; Inferior colors are not enough, just like eighty-year-old fat powder, it is difficult to impress the hearts of sages. This passage more vividly summarizes the close relationship between form and color. Tibetan painting experts in different historical periods have made unremitting explorations of the relationship between line drawing and coloring, so that the combination of the two has been continuously improved, and Tibetan painting has paid more attention to the role of color while putting line drawing modeling in the first place, thus greatly enriching the expressiveness of Tibetan painting.